Grabr app lets you make money from your leftover luggage space

If you've ever visited friends or family in Brazil, chances are they've asked you to ferry something into the country -- be it vitamins, the latest iPhone or even a kitchen faucet.

Now there's an app that aims to expand that practice beyond friends and family and turn complete strangers into couriers. And profits.

Grabr, a three-year-old San Francisco-based startup, puts travellers in touch with consumers and helps them work out the logistics of buying and handing over goods. In the simplest of terms, it's both a rental agency for spare luggage space and a delivery service. Or it might be considered a newfangled courier service.

Taxes and import fees are high in developing countries like Brazil, and access to goods is limited. Recently, to make matters worse, airlines imposed tougher weight limits for luggage. International travellers must now dig into their wallets if their baggage exceeds 50 pounds, versus the prior cutoff of 70 pounds.

"People will wait for family or friends to travel and bring things back for them," Grabr's Brazil head Michele Chahin said in a phone interview. "We are bringing technology to something that comes naturally for Brazilians."

How It Works

The platform is designed to protect both sides. The traveller makes the purchase, the buyer pays, and the app holds onto the funds until both parties meet up and confirm all is correct. The buyer pays a previously agreed-upon price to the traveller, and Grabr takes 7 per cent off the top as a fee.

Buyers typically save at least 30 percent on goods compared to local prices, said Chahin, who is the only Grabr employee in Brazil.

Grabr, which competes with other apps including PiggyBee and Backpack, has overseen the ferrying of more than 350,000 deliveries globally since operations began, from Moscow to Ho Chi Minh City. Last year, 40 percent of deliveries went to Argentina and 30 percent to Brazil, Chahin said.